A court in the Philippines has blocked the sale of about 100 million shares in Bloomberry Resorts Corp. by the company that formerly operated its new Solaire Resort & Casino in Manila.
The court ordered Global Gaming Asset Management—a casino developer founded by former Las Vegas Sands President William Weidner and controlled by financial services giant Cantor Fitzgerald—to halt any sale before arbitrators in Singapore settle a dispute between PSX-listed Bloomberry and GGAM, which was fired from Solaire last September. The court said GGAM’s 8.7 percent stake in Bloomberry would serve as security before the arbitrators decided the matter.
The $750 million Solaire has underperformed expectations since opening last March as the first of four casino-hotel complexes approved for a government-owned tourism district on Manila Bay known as Entertainment City.
The government expects Entertainment City at full build-out to boost gaming revenue in the Philippines to as much as US$7 billion over the next five years. Casino revenue in the Philippines reached $2.2 billion last year.
